Are penguins jumping ship at SeaWorld Orlando's new Antarctica attraction? Videos have surfaced of the flightless birds walking among theme-park guests at the end of the Empire of the Penguin ride, which opened to the public last Friday.

"As the penguins continue to acclimate to their new home, as we expected, a few have misjudged a jump during their fast swimming and landed unharmed on the guest side of the habitat," a SeaWorld Orlando official said Wednesday.

People disembark from their ride vehicles into an open-air space where 250 penguins live, standing on rocky cliffs and swimming tantilizingly close to paying customers.

In an amateur video posted on the Internet, one bird walks on the ground and tries to get back into the pool, only to be thwarted by a plastic wall separating water from dry ground. Team members stand between the lone penguin and other guests until another worker enters and lifts the bird over the wall and into the water. Folks applaud.

"The penguins may be a bit surprised to find themselves walking among the guests for a short period of time and our aviculturists quickly and gently place them back into the pool," the official said.

The penguins moved into the habitat about two weeks before the attraction opened. They are the same animals who lived in Penguin Encounter, which was closed to make room for Antarctica.

The opening-day crowds formed waits as long as five hours for Antarctica -- Empire of the Penguin. The queue shortened some during the holiday weekend, with a common wait time being 90 minutes to two hours. SeaWorld said it was working to make guests comfortable with water, fans, shade and misters.

The four-acre expansion is the largest in SeaWorld Orlando's 39-year history.